Method and apparatus for multimedia interaction routing according to agent capacity sets

ABSTRACT

A routing software application for predicting a best routing destination from a pool of considered routing destinations for an incoming event into a communications routing system has a detection module for detecting the arrival of the event for routing; at least one instance of an information gathering routine for gathering and compiling information about the considered destinations; at least one reporting module for organizing and reporting the gathered information; and a processing module for computing values from the gathered information and selecting the best routing destination based on isolation of the best computed value. In a preferred embodiment scalar load information per media type and per destination and agent skill information related to at least media skills per type of media per destination is processed by the processing module, which isolates, identifies, and selects at least the best destination for routing.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is in the field of multimedia communications andinteraction routing software and pertains particularly to methods andapparatus for routing multimedia events to communication-center agentsbased on agent capacity sets in real time.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED DOCUMENTS

The present invention is related to a U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,066 entitled“Multimedia Managing and Prioritized Queuing System Integrated withIntelligent Routing Capability” issued on Jul. 17, 2001, disclosure ofwhich is incorporated herein at least by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Telephones are one of the most widely used communication tools in theworld. At first, telephones were merely a convenient tool to allowpeople to communicate while they were physically separated. Morerecently, however, many companies use telephones to market products andservices, provide technical support to customers, allow customers toaccess their own financial data, and so forth.

In order to more effectively use telephones for business and marketingpurposes, call centers have been developed. In a call center, arelatively large number of agents handle telephone communication withclients. The matching of calls between clients and agents is typicallyperformed by software. A simple example is used here to describe a fewof the many advantages of using call centers. When a call is made to acall center, the telephone number of the calling line is typically madeavailable to the call center by a telephone carrier. Based on thistelephone number, the software in the call center can access a databaseto obtain information about the client who has that phone number. Thesoftware can then better route the call to an agent who can best handlethe call based on predefined criteria (e.g., language skill, knowledgeof products the customer bought, etc.). The software also immediatelytransfers relevant information about the client to a computer screenused by the agent. Thus, the agent can gain valuable information aboutthe customer prior to receiving the call. As a result, the agent canmore effectively handle the telephone transaction.

It can be seen from the above example that the enabling technologyrequires a combination of telephone switching and computer informationprocessing technologies. The term commonly used in the art for thiscombined technology is computer-telephony-integration (CTI).

In recent years, advances in computer technology, telephony equipment,and infrastructure have provided many opportunities for improvingtelephone service. Similarly, development of the information and datanetwork known as Internet, together with advances in computer hardwareand software have led to a new multimedia telephone system which will bereferred to herein as data-network-telephony (DNT) which encompasses allmultimedia-based communication including Internet Protocol NetworkTelephony (IPNT). IPNT is a special case of Data Network Telephony (DNT)wherein telephone calls are computer-simulated, and audio data istransmitted in the form of data packets.

In DNT systems as well as in the older intelligent and CTI-enhancedtelephony systems, both privately and publicly-switched, it is desirableto handle more calls faster and to provide improved service in everyway. This desire applies to multimedia-based communications in additionto telephone calls, as some call centers have moved to combine DNT withCTI technologies. It is emphasized that computer-simulated callsattributed to DNT may be made over company Intranets and other sorts ofdata networks as well as the Internet. The Internet is primarily used anas an example in this specification because it is broad and pervasivewith universal protocol.

One of the major goals of any call center is to maximize clientsatisfaction. Part of the satisfaction that a client might receive fromdoing business with a company relates to how quickly and efficiently heor she is served. For example, when a client calls in to place an orderfor a product or service, he or she does not want to be put on hold fora lengthy period of time.

If a client sends an E-mail, Voice mail or another type of multimediacommunication, he or she does not want to be overlooked or forgotten onan agent's computer. Rather, the client desires that a timely andprofessional response will be sent back by the company. This isespecially true with company-to-company buying of products or services.A typical buyer has many duties that can be interrupted because ofinordinate amounts of time spent waiting to place an order. In thesetypes of situations, idle time costs money, and in many cases, cannot betolerated. Many orders are lost by companies who have put clients inlong waiting queues or subjected them to long waiting periods formultimedia responses. Such clients often become annoyed, perhapssearching for a suitable competitor who can meet their needs in a timelymanner.

With call centers evolving into sophisticated and fast-paced contactcenters wherein telephone and multimedia communications are routine, itbecomes desirable to be able to prioritize and intelligently route allforms of communication with the goal of expedient and professionalservice to the client in mind.

Intelligent routing rules put in place in some intelligent networksknown to the inventors have provided some relief for callers who wouldbe stuck in queue much longer without them. For example, in someintelligent networks known to the inventor, skill-based routing,predictive routing, routing based on agent availability, as well asother intelligent implementations have provided for a better use ofagent time within a call-center environment, thereby shortening queuelength and reducing waiting time. However, even with these developments,there are certain peak periods during call-center operation that longwaiting queues are unavoidable. Also, Intelligent routing rules, such aspredictive routing or routing based on skill set of the agent aresomewhat limited in current art to conventional telephone apparatus andcalls, which are termed in this specification Connection-OrientatedSwitched Telephony (COST) calls.

Another problem in the current art involves separation of differentprotocols that are associated with different communication forms.Intelligent routing must typically be separately implemented for eachcommunication method that uses a separate protocol. For example, anE-mail routing system would typically be separate from a COST callrouting system, and so on. No viable solutions have been offered incurrent art that would integrate and combine functions of a routingsystem in order to provide priority and skill based routing for COSTcalls as well as DNT calls including multimedia communications.

The inventor is aware of a queuing system for a contact center whereinthe system is adapted to queue voice mails as well as live telephonecalls. In a preferred embodiment the calls include bothconnection-oriented switched telephony (COST) calls and Data NetworkTelephony (DNT) calls. Callers are enabled to leave voice mail as analternative to waiting, and records of the voice mails are queued,preferably in the same queue processing the live calls. In someembodiments the call center is enabled to process e-mails, video mailsand facsimile messages as well as live calls and voice mail messages,and all types of multimedia communication can be queued in the samequeue according to pre-stored routing rules and priority rules.

Skill-based intelligent routing as used in communication-center routingschemes has long been associated on a per-media basis and connected tomore basic routing intelligence such as routing based on real-timeavailability or even predicted availability. In other words, when acustomer calls in, first an available agent is found that meets acertain pre-set skill value in terms of possessing a certain type ofspecialized skill required of the caller. For example, if aSpanish-speaking customer is looking for assistance, the agent selectedwould have to possess the basic skills required to service the interestsof the caller and the particular skill of speaking Spanish. Skills thenare largely pre-set values that are quantified and qualified for agentsbefore creating intelligent routing routines that utilize the values inrouting. Skill predeterminations for agents working in a communicationscenter environment are limited to real-value skills like the ability tospeak Spanish, the ability to process certain documents, knowledge incertain areas of business function, access to certain external datasources, and so on.

Availability routing routines are based on the availability of an agentin real-time and can be discerned in real-time during execution of anintelligent routine. The inventor knows of predictive agent-availabilityroutines that can predict a probability factor of whether or not aparticular agent or group of agents will be available at a certain pointin time. Predictive routines eliminate some of the steps required ofreal agent-availability routines and therefore streamline the routingprocess even if they are somewhat less reliable in producing anavailable agent for a caller waiting in queue.

Agent availability routines, unlike traditional load-balancing routines,are particular to agents' media responsibilities as practiced at theirstations for agent-level-routing (ALR). In a multimedia-capable contactcenter for example, any one agent may be responsible for severalcommunications mediums like telephone, e-mail, voice mail, Internettelephony, Fax, file transfers, and so on. Unlike determining agentloads at switches, shared queues, and other major routing points, agentavailability based on media is concerned with the ongoing local tasks ofan agent who may be handling several communications mediumssimultaneously at his or her station.

One way to determine agent availability for routing is to monitor theagent meticulously, such as by requiring the agent to log in and out ofcommunications tasks and/or assigning specific tasks for specificperiods. For example, when an agent is logged in answering e-mail, he orshe is somewhat less available for answering other mediums ofcommunications like COST telephone, or file transfers. Some agents maybe determined to be unavailable for all other mediums if a telephonyqueue reaches a certain threshold. Therefore, it can be seen that modernagent-availability values are largely scalar in nature and based oncurrent queue loads and real-time agent scheduling. Typically, from thecaller's viewpoint, an agent is determined to be busy or not busy. Asidefrom strict management of what mediums an agent is allowed to work withat any given period, predicting the true availability of an agent acrossmultiple mediums is not practiced.

It has occurred to the inventors that multimedia queue capabilities andevent prioritization as taught in the related case U.S. Pat. No.6,263,066 listed above can be enhanced with local knowledge of agentinteraction or communication systems status andcommunications-medium-based agent skill assessments to produce anintelligent routing routine that incorporates both skills andavailability factors across multiple mediums.

Therefore, what is clearly needed is a method of intelligent routingthat computes real-time agent availability across multiplecommunications mediums wherein the computed value also accounts foragent up-to-date skill levels in handling the mediums encountered. Sucha method would provide a predictive routine that would furtherstreamline multimedia queues and result in faster event processing andcustomer satisfaction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a routing softwareapplication for predicting a best routing destination from a pool ofconsidered routing destinations for an incoming event into acommunications routing system is provided, comprising a detection modulefor detecting the arrival of the event for routing, at least oneinstance of an information gathering routine for gathering and compilinginformation about the considered destinations, at least one reportingmodule for organizing and reporting the gathered information, and aprocessing module for computing values from the gathered information andselecting the best routing destination based on isolation of the bestcomputed value. The application is characterized in that scalar loadinformation per media type and per destination and agent skillinformation related to at least media skills per type of media perdestination is processed by the processing module, which isolates,identifies, and selects at least the best destination for routing theevent.

In one embodiment the destinations are associated with a pool of agentsin a communications center, the agents assigned to and operating morethan one type of multimedia application for serving incoming events.Also in an embodiment the destinations are agent-operated multimediaworkstations. In yet another embodiment the incoming events for routinginclude telephone calls, e-mails, voice mails, file share requests, IPtelephony calls, video conference calls, instant message sessions, andchat sessions. In still another embodiment the processing module is partof a CTI processor hosting the software application. In some cases theCTI-processor has connection to one or a combination of a telephonyswitch, a second CTI processor, and an IP router.

In yet another embodiment of the invention the processing module uses analgorithm to determine a best match destination for an incoming eventfor routing, the algorithm producing a predictive result based on scalarload values per media type utilized simultaneously at a destination at agiven period of time of the executed routing routine request and agentskill values per media type assigned. In still another embodiment the atleast one instance of information gathering routine is executed from atleast one instance of reporting module, the reporting module adistributed client of the application. The number of the at least onereporting module may be equal to the number of considered destinationsfor routing, the modules distributed to the destinations and permanentlyresident therein.

In still another embodiment scalar load information includes queue loadper media type per agent, server loads related to multimedia servers,port loads related to agent-operated communication ports, line loadsrelated to network routing paths leading to agents, and system loadsrelating to number of applications running and memory-use of thoseapplications on agent-operated systems. In some cases the agent-operatedsystems include desktop computers.

In another aspect of the invention a method for routing specificincoming interaction events of varying multi-media types to specificagents operating in a pool of agents in a contact center, the agents inthe pool of agents operating more than one application for handling theinteractions of the multi-media types comprising steps of (a) detectingan incoming interaction event and identifying at least the media type ofthe event, and purpose of the event; (b) constructing an agent capacityset of all of the considered agents in the pool of agents; (c) isolatingat least one available agent from the considered agents based ondetermination of least relative load in comparison with all of theagents relative load values defined in step (b); and (d) routing theinteraction to the agent having the lowest value of relative load.

In some embodiments of the method, in step (a), the incoming interactionevents for routing include telephone calls, e-mails, voice mails, fileshare requests, IP telephony calls, video conference calls, instantmessage sessions, and chat sessions. Also in some embodiments, in step(b), the agents are operating computerized agent workstations, the agentcapacity set comprising a list of all of the agent's individualcapacities identified for each agent. In some embodiments, in step (b),the agent capacity set includes load values per media type currentlyrunning, system load values, and agent skill-level values related toindividual media type.

In some embodiments, in step (c), the least relative load value isderived from scalar load values and skill-level values. Also in someembodiments, in step (c), one available agent is selected and one backupagent is selected. In still other embodiments, in step (c), all agentsin the pool of considered agents are automatically considered availableagents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is an architectural overview of a multimedia communicationscenter using agent-capacity-set-routing (ACSR) according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a process flow diagram for routing according to ACSR.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of various software modules interacting toprocess Agent Capacity Sets used in weighing agent availability forrouting.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is an architectural overview 100 of a multimedia communicationscenter 128 using agent-capacity-set-routing (ACSR) according to anembodiment of the invention. Communications architecture 100 includesbut is not limited to a telephony network (PSTN) 101, adata-packet-network (DPN) (Internet) 111, and contact center 128.

PSTN network 101 may be any other type of telephony network includingprivate and wireless networks. Internet 111 may be another type of DPNsuch as a wide-area-network (WAN), an Intranet, an Ethernet, any ofwhich may be corporate, publicly accessible, or private. The inventorchooses the well-known PSTN and Internet networks for this examplebecause of the high public access characteristics and unlimitedgeographic range statistics.

Contact center 128 receives events from both PSTN 101 and from Internet111. PSTN 101 may be assumed to contain all of the necessary equipment,for example, telephony switches, routers, carrier switches, networkgateways, service control points, and any other equipment required toenable telephony. A local telephony switch LSW 102 is illustrated PSTN101 and is adapted in this case as a telephony switch local to contactcenter 128. That is to say that LSW 102 represents a last telephonyswitch through which calls destined for center 128 are routed. LSW 102has a telephony connection to a central telephony switch (CSW) 105provided within center 128. LSW 102 and CSW 105 may be private branchexchange (PBX)-type switches, automated call distribution switches ACDs)or any other type of suitable telephony switches LSW 102 represents alast routing point in the PSTN for calls destined to center 128 and CSW105 represents a last routing point for all calls before agent levelrouting.

A computer-telephony-integration (CTI) processor 103 is provided withinPSTN 101 and has connection to LSW 102 by way of a CTI link 104.Processor 103 provides intelligent routing and other routines to LSW 102that are controlled from within center 128. Another CTI processor 106 isillustrated within the domain of contact center 128 and has connectionby way of a CTI-link 110 to CSW 105. Processor 106 provides intelligentrouting routines to CSW 105. There does not have to be 2 processors(103, 106) connected to enable practice of the present invention. Theinventor logically illustrated 2 separate processors for separation offunction only.

Processor 103 is illustrated as having a data network connection 127 toprocessor 106. Connection 127 enables the 2 processors to communicatewith each other passing appropriate routines, system updates, routinginstruction, voice application instructions. Processor 103 has aninstance of transaction server (TS) software, an instance of interactivevoice response (IVR) software, and an instance of agent capacity-setrouting (ACSR) software installed and executable therein according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention.

Processor 106 located within center 128 has identical instances ofsoftware installed therein and executable thereon. The functionality ofthe processors may be provided in one or the other of the illustratedprocessors without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. The inventor logically illustrates that functionalityprovided by ACSR/TS/IVR software may be extended into PSTN 101 throughswitch enhancement, namely CTI processor 103. In this case intelligentroutines can be executed at both switches 102 and 105.

TS provides intelligent routing routines such as ones described withreference to the background section of this specification. IVR providesvoice interaction functions between center 128 and clients or customers.Both TS and IVR functions are state-of-art routing and interactionprograms known to the inventor. The novel function of ACSR software isdescribed later in this specification.

All connection-oriented-switched-telephony (COST) events destined forcenter 128 are processed for routing information at LSW 102 in someembodiments. In other embodiments routing intelligence extends only toCSW 105, which would then be the processing point for all COST eventsarriving into center 128. In still another embodiment, processing may beshared between CTI-enhanced LSW 102 and CTI-enhanced CSW 105.

Internet 111 may be assumed to contain all of the lines, equipment andconnection points making up the Internet network as a whole. Thisassumption is represented herein by an Internet backbone 108 extendingthrough cloud 111 in both directions. In actual practice, the boundariesbetween the PSTN network and the Internet network are defined more bydata type carried instead of separate lines. Many shared lines andequipment groups handle both Internet and COST traffic. A Web server(WS) 127 is illustrated within Internet 111 and has connection tobackbone 108. WS 127 is adapted as a contact server for clients orcustomers of center 128 that are using data-network-telephony DNTapplications adapted to be used over the Internet network as a datacarrier. WS 127 serves electronic information pages as well as providesinteractive options for contact such as e-mail, voice mail, InternetProtocol Telephony (IPT), links to other communications servers, accessto file sharing software, upload/download functions and so on. Usersaccessing WS 127 for interaction with center 128 would gain accessthrough normal Internet access and navigation protocols known in theart.

Data sent to center 128 by users through connection to WS 127 travelsover an Internet access line 121 connected to an Internet Protocol (IP)router 109 illustrated within center 128. Data sent to users from center128 travels back over the same connection from router 109. In otherembodiment other servers may be involved and direct connections may alsobe established between users and IP router 109 without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the present invention. Connection 121 is meantto be logical only.

IP router 109 is an intelligent router that has a direct data-lineconnection 107 to CTI processor 106 within center 128. Connection 107enables information and intelligent routines to be distributed to andexecuted at both system locations (106, 109). Intelligent routines andinformation may also be uploaded to WS 127 through IP router 109 overconnection 121.

Communications center 128 has a local-area-network (LAN) 112 establishedtherein for the purpose of routing notification events, data, andsharing of functionality and software updates between LAN connectedstations, systems, and servers. LAN 112 is presumed in this example tobe TCP/IP enabled for communication with the Internet and therefore maybe thought of as a sub-net of the Internet network. As a sub-net ofInternet 111, LAN 112 may be active for Internet communication on a24-hour basis. LAN 112 has a plurality of WEB-based communicationsservers connected thereto. These are an e-mail server 116, an instantmessage server 117, and a chat server 118. Server 116 is adapted todistribute e-mail and voice mail messages received from users accessingthrough Internet 111 to center recipients or to a general multimediaqueue illustrated herein as a multimedia queue system (MQS) 115. MQS 115is illustrated herein as connected to LAN 112 and is accessible forshared use. Server 116 is also adapted for sending messages out throughIP router 109 to Internet-based recipients. Internet based-recipientsalso include those accessing the Internet through a wireless gateway forInternet capable wireless devices.

IM server 117 is adapted to serve instant messages in real time back andforth between center agents and, in some cases, automated systems, andInternet-based users. Chat server 118 is adapted as a communicationsserver for connection available center personal to ongoing chat sessionshosted by center 128 and held in server 118.

In one embodiment, servers 116, 117, and 118 may be maintained at thelevel of network 111 instead of in the local LAN domain of center 128.However, for the purpose of the present invention, it is preferred thatthe just-mentioned servers be held locally or within direct control ofcenter 128. LAN 112 has connection to a multimedia database (MDB) 113.MDB 113 is adapted to store all multimedia interaction history thatoccurs in the normal communications process carried on by center 128 oragents thereof.

A plurality of agent workstations 119 a-n is illustrated withincommunications center 128. Each agent station 119 a-n has a LANconnection through installed computer systems each supporting agraphical user interface (GUI). Generally speaking, each station 119 a-nuses a desktop computer with a monitor for GUI display. For example,station 119 has a desktop computer 122 illustrated therein havingconnection to LAN 112. Station 119 n has a desktop computer 124illustrated therein having connection to LAN 112. Each station 119 a-nalso has a COST telephone disposed therein. Station 119 a has telephone123 and station 119 n has a telephone 125. Telephones disposed withinstations 119 a-n such as telephones 123 and 125 have connection to CSW105 through telephony wiring 114 for normal COST interaction withPSTN-based customers. Contact center 128 is a dual capable centerprocessing both COST events and DPN-based events as illustrated by thespecific equipment types and connections. In one embodiment center 128may be a pure DNT center wherein all COST events arriving thereto areconverted to DNT events for computer processing or pick-up throughIP-based data phones or headsets/handsets.

One with skill in the art of telephony communications centers willnotice that there may be additional servers and system employed within acontact center of the type described that are not illustrated in thisexample. For example, a customer-information-system (CIS) server,voice-application-server (VAS), a historical database, a statisticsserver (Stat-server), and others may be included in this example withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention. Furthermore,center 128 may also be an object-oriented system that employs and objectdatabase using a communications model, a middleware server, and alegacy-type functional database system. In this embodiment a host ofsystem-to-system processes may be set-up to run in automated fashion.The inventor only illustrates the components most involved with orrequired to demonstrate various aspects of practicing the presentinvention.

ACSR software is provided both within center 128 and in distribution tonetwork-level locations. Given the illustrated architecture withincenter 128, ACSR software is based on processor 106 in this embodimentas a parent application. ACSR software may instead or also be providedas a parent application on processor 103 if agent level routing isperformed at the level of switch 102. ACSR software may also be providedas a parent application on IP router 109. ACSR software is adapted towork with existing CTI and TS software applications to predict real-timeagent availability for communications with customers across all of theagent's active communications tools and mediums. ACSR software is alsoadapted to figure into the equation agent skills related to operation ofspecific tools and mediums used by the agent in interaction. Agent skillweights and agent availability weights are combined to create an agentcapacity set that is a dynamic snapshot of an agent's state that is usedfor routing determination.

Instances of ACSR are illustrated in this example at system locationswhere agent information is gathered for processing. These instances are,in one embodiment, spawned by the parent application running onprocessor 106. For example, an instance of ACSR is illustrated in MQS115, in IM server 117, in Chat server 118, in IP router 109, and onagent computers 122 and 124. In another embodiment, the just-describedACSR instances are permanently installed ACSR plug-in modules adapted tomonitor agent activity and communicate the particulars upon request froma parent ACSR application. It is important to note herein that a parentinstance of ACSR may be provided in plural to multiple processing basesif they exist in the architecture. For example, if contact center 128has several telephony switches and CTI processors adapted in pairs forexample to service separate agent groups, then a parent ACSR instancemay be provided one instance per equipment pairing, one instancededicated to one agent group. There are many configurationpossibilities.

In practice of the invention, call events routed to switch 105 forexample, would be processed by routines provided by processor 106 IVRinteraction would typically ensue and internal routing determinationprocesses would launch. If sub-instances of ACSR are spawned from theparent, then they would be distributed in one operation to appropriatepoints in the system for information gathering. A spawned instance atMQS 115 would report scalar queue information for each agent in a poolof agents sharing MQS 115. This would be accomplished for each mediatype active in the queue and be reported in a fashion particular to eachagent in the group.

Spawned instances distributed from processor 106 may also appear onagent computers as illustrated herein with respect to computers 122 and124. These instances gather and report agent computer activity likeprograms running, and map any current interaction activity statesoccurring per computer per agent in the considered group. ACSR instancesin servers 117 and 118 report any agent related activities occurringtherein on the level of individual agent. ACSR at IP router 109 wouldreport any queued events waiting for routing or queued for agenttreatment on a per-agent basis. In addition to reporting scalaragent-load information in terms of media-type of events waiting foragents being considered as routing destinations, ACSR spawned instancesalso gauge and report mechanical capacity data related toserver-capacities, queue capacities, desktop computer capacities, andline capacities. These capacity values are figured into score values foreach considered agent. For example, an agent who has 3 programs runningon his computer and is therefore low in computer resources will likelybe passed over in routing an Internet Protocol Network Telephony (IPNT)event when other agents have fewer or nor current programs running.

It is noted herein that the actual points of reference for spawnedinstances of ACSR may vary depending on the type of media of the eventwaiting for routing determination, and the current media types andassignments of agents considered as potential destinations of the event.In one embodiment there are no spawned instances of ACSR software forgathering agent state information, rather distribute ACSR modules areprovided as standalone clients to the parent application or as plug-inclient modules that can be adapted to the appropriate instances ofapplication, sever and communications applications used in thecommunications-center system.

ACSR software running on processor 106 computes all of the returned databy algorithm in a process to determine at least one routing destinationrecommendation once all of the ACSR client instances have reported. Thedetermination is based on a multidimensional picture of agent activityover multiple mediums and includes skill weighting. The selected bestmatch for the current event is recommended to TS software for routing.

FIG. 2 is a process flow diagram for routing according to ACSR. At step200 an event is received for routing. The event can be any type ofcenter-supported media. At step 201, individual scalar loads on existingagent-based resources are calculated. Scalar loads include indicators ofqueue depth per media type per agent, server load for agent-led chatsessions, state of programs running on an agent machine, back-upindicators at agent operated data ports, indication of traffic flow orbottle neck over LAN connections, and so on.

At step 202, agent states are mapped according to the most recentmedia-specific task. There are two linear operators applied to currentagent state. The first one maps the agent state N to the agent state N*the agent goes to after being assigned a new media type. The second mapsthe agent state N to the agent state N* the agent goes to aftercompletely serving an interaction of the new media type. This stateinformation is available for all supported media types and simultaneousagent interactions of those media types. Therefore, each agent has abounded set of vectors defined as a polytope value used in a mainalgorithm.

At step 203, pre-set skill weight averages of all of the agents arecomputed with their state values. Individual skill weights for differentmedia types will vary from agent to agent. These values can be combinedto produce an average and dynamic skill weight that reflects a skilllevel state of an agent using the currently assigned media types. In oneembodiment a value reflecting agent product knowledge may also befigured in. This value can also be a pre-set value that is updatedperiodically as an agent gains more experience. The same is true forskill weights of particular communications mediums. As an agent improveshis ability to handle video conferencing software, for example, hisskill weight in that particular medium can be upgraded to reflect theincrease in skill over a period of time.

At step 204, the skill weights per agent are averaged in with theirpolytope results and compared. At step 205, the field of possibledestinations for the event under scrutiny is narrowed to at least arelatively small set of available agents that could best handle thepending interaction. At step 206 one agent is selected from the groupand in a preferred embodiment, a back-up agent is identified. Thecriteria for narrowing the field down to one destination agent and onebackup may depend on media type of the pending interaction. For example,if there are six available agents with the same values in the narrowedfield some secondary criteria is used in the selection process. Theselection criteria could be a throwback value from initial availabilitydetermination and re-compared for the narrowed field. In this way, abetter match may be achieved than might be achieved through randomselection of equally graded agents. Of course in some embodiments only asingle agent may emerge as an obvious selection.

An example of a secondary comparison in the event of need for a tiebreaker may simply be to re-evaluate the last active media states ofequally-graded agents and choose one that has a media state mostsuitable for the pending interaction. Enterprise rules can be createdand applied to any tie-breaking situations. Random selection from anarrowed field of agents may also be practiced.

At step 207, the pending interaction is routed according to theselection made at step 206. The ASCR software may, in one embodiment, beintegrated with TS software to the point of trading operations.Traditional routing rules and standard processes may be used to firstnarrow a field of agents to some extent before applying the algorithm tothe remaining field. Step 207 may, in some cases, be the only stepinvolving TS software. In one embodiment, ACSR software simply forwardsthe selection result obtained at step 206 as a command to TS softwarefor initiating the routing mechanics for an event that has a destinationdetermined. Any back-up destination can be tagged on to the command as asecondary operation should the first connection fail or suddenly becomeunavailable.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the processdescribed in this example can be integrated with existing routingprotocols and routines generic to transaction server TS software and CTIsoftware. ACSR routines result in a predictive state of the destinationunlike standard routines that simply determine that an agent is busy andcannot handle an interaction or that the agent is not busy and canhandle the interaction.

ACSR processing determines a best match from a pool of possibilitiestaking into account multiple active media-type interactions beingprocessed by the agents and skill-level indicators that predict anagent's probable efficiency in taking the new interaction withoutcompromising the quality of the current load the agent is dealing with.ACSR enables a multidimensional view of the agent and therefore providesmaximum utilization of the agents' capabilities in a multi-taskingenvironment such as a multimedia communications center.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of various software modules interacting toprocess Agent Capacity Sets used in weighing agent availability forrouting. ACSR software is automated and uses an automated detectiondevice to detect events for routing. An event-for-routing (EFR)detection module 300 is provided and adapted to detect all incomingevents for routing. This feature can be used to customize ACSR softwareto a particular group of agents. For example, only one or a few ofseveral available groups of agents can be configured for ACSR routing.In this case the criteria for event detection is tailored to indicationsthat a particular group should handle an event. IVR interaction canprovide the trigger or triggers for initiating the process forparticular incoming events.

Upon detecting an event for ACSR routing determination, sub-instances ofACSR are spawned in one embodiment. For example, a scalar agent-loadgathering instance 302 is spawned to gather the most recent loadinformation. An ACSR information-gathering instance is spawned to gatherthe most recent state information from the agent-activity. ACSRinstances 302 and 301 can be combined into one spawned instance orseparated into two defined instances as illustrated herein. Instances302 and 301 are spawned simultaneously and can be controlled by atime-out function. In another embodiment, instances 301 and 302 are notrequired because permanent client modules are in place to report theactivity state and load states of each agent per each media type. Inthis case elements 301 and 302 are notification modules that simplyrequest the most recent information.

A reporting engine 303 is provided and adapted to compile and reportdata gathered from spawned instances 301 and 302. In the case of anotification embodiment, reporting engine simply reports the most recentsnapshot of the active agent data. Reporting engine 303 reports all ofthe pertinent information to a core processor 304, which applies thealgorithm for determining a best match selection. After a determinationhas been made, which may include identification of a backup destination,processor 304 issues a command to a transaction routing function 305 tocarry out the mechanics of routing assuming a set destination. Coreprocessor 304 performs all of the mathematics and elimination to come upwith a final recommended destination.

Algorithm

ACSR software uses algorithmic computations to produce a best match forrouting according to an agent-capacity set determination. The entireprocessed is based partly on scalar load indications, but moreimportantly on skill considerations. As a predictive routine, ACSRavailability determination accounts for a fact that a more experiencedand skillful agent can deal with a higher number of interactions ofvarying media types simultaneously and a fact that a particular agentmay be unusually or especially skillful in processing interactions ofone or more specific media types.

Let M denote a set of particular media types that an agent must dealwith simultaneously. The set can be expressed as media types T₁-T_(M).With a set of media types defined as the included media types that aresupported and that an agent or group of agents will work with, a fewdefinitions need to be provided as follows:

An agent state can be defined as an integer vector {right arrow over(N)}ε

^(M) of the form N=(N₁, . . . , N_(M)), where N_(i) is equal to thenumber of particular interactions of the i^(th) media type that isserved by an agent simultaneously at any given moment of time. For eachmedia type T_(S), there are two defined linear operators. These areIB_(S):

^(M)→

^(M) and IE_(S):

^(M)→

^(M) further broken down as follows.IB _(S)({right arrow over (N)})N*=(N ₁ , . . . , N _(S−1) , N _(S)+1, N_(S+1) , . . . , N _(M)) andIE _(S)({right arrow over (N)})=N*=(N ₁ , . . . , N _(S−1) , N _(S)+1, N_(S+1) , . . . , N _(M)).

The operator IB maps an agent state N to the agent state N* that theagent goes to after being assigned a new interaction of the particularmedia type T_(S). The operator IE maps an agent state N to the agentstate N* that the agent goes to after completely serving an interactionof the media type T_(S). Therefore, operators IB and IE are respectivelyreferred to herein as start and end linear interaction operators in thisexample on the media type T_(S). It will be obvious to one with skill inthe art that IB_(S) and IE_(S) combined are equal to E where E is anidentity operator.

Since agent capacity is limited, the state of all of the possible statespertaining to any specific agent is bounded as a set of M-vectors. Thisbounded set may be assumed convex. The simplest class of convex boundedsets are polytopes. This particular motivation leads to a next formaldefinition as follows. A capacity set of a particular agent is definedas a polytope Ω⊂

^(M) defined by a system of inequalities expressed as B{right arrow over(K)}≦{right arrow over (C)}, where B is an L×M-matrix over the realnumbers dim {right arrow over (C)}=L, dim {right arrow over (K)}=M suchthat current agent state {right arrow over (N)}εΩ for every moment oftime.

The graphic below illustrates the definitions described above for a caseof M=2 (voice, e-mail).

Agent load is defined as a scalar product:

${U\left( \overset{->}{N} \right)} = {\left\langle {\overset{->}{N},\overset{->}{\omega}} \right\rangle = {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{M}\; N_{iWi}}}$where {right arrow over (N)} is the current agent state and {right arrowover (ω)} is an M-vector of media weights. In a simplest case, {rightarrow over (ω)}={1, . . . , 1}.

Maximum permissible agent load is defined as follows:

$U^{*} = {\max\limits_{\overset{\rightarrow}{K} \in \Omega_{A}}{U\left( \overset{\rightarrow}{K} \right)}}$

It follows then from the four definitions given above that U* alwaysexists. U* is equal to the maximum linear functional on a boundedpolytope. The value can be found using the well-known simplex method.

Relative agent load is defined as follows:

${\overset{\sim}{U}\left( \overset{->}{N} \right)} = {\frac{U(N)}{U^{*}}.}$

Using the 6 definitions given above, the main algorithm automaticallycomputes the best match for routing a particular interaction accordingto agent capacity set. A basic procedure consists of (a) constructingthe available agents set using the formula Λ:N*_(A)=IB_(S)N_(A)εΩ_(A).(b) find the least relative loaded agent using the formula

${A^{*}:{\overset{\sim}{U}\left( A^{*} \right)}} = {\min\limits_{A \in \Lambda}{{\overset{\sim}{U}(A)}\mspace{14mu}{and}\mspace{14mu}(c)}}$routing the pending interaction to A*, which means that

${\overset{->}{N}}_{A^{*}}->{{IB}_{s}{{\overset{->}{N}}_{A^{*}}.}}$

The very basic procedure stated above hold that the least relativelyloaded agent is selected from the set of all available agents. However,more advanced or complex criteria can be applied in step (b) because theresults in step (b) do not affect the outcomes of steps (a) or (c).

Additional criteria for selecting an agent may include aspects relatedto any scalar defined, or statistically predicted criteria. Although thesteps described above are simple in definition it should be noted that acombined capacity set of all available agents comprises all of theindividual agent capacity sets and can be generated as an indexed listof capacity sets showing all of the data of each set. The term leastrelatively loaded agent includes scalar considerations, skillconsiderations, and other additional considerations if the enterprisehas adapted those considerations into the computation. Additionally, thesteps described above may be integrated with other defined stepsperformed by other software processes such as CTI and TS routines.

The ACSR software of the present invention can be applied to allsupported media types and pending events thereof without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the present invention. The method of the presentinvention can be practiced in a single contact center or in a network ofphysically separate contact centers wherein incoming events are pendingagent-to-agent interactions.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, ACSR software may alsobe adapted to select a best match for incoming machine-basedinteractions, and other automated notifications that may not becustomer-based. For example, automated system-maintenance requestsgenerated on a periodic basis, say from an automated system repairscheduler that uses a voice application, can be considered as incomingevents destined to a large group of system-maintenance professionalsstationed within a contact center. The ACSR program can find the leastrelatively loaded system-maintenance professional who will most likelybe able to handle a particular request in the most expedient fashion.There are many possible scenarios for ACSR application.

The methods and apparatus of the claimed invention, in light of the manypossible embodiments, should be afforded the broadest possible scopeunder examination. The spirit and scope of the present invention shouldbe limited only by the claims that follow.

1. A multimedia transaction routing system, comprising: a pool of agentdestinations for the transaction, each operating more than one type of aplurality of media types included in the multimedia transactions; aqueue per agent destination for each of the separate media types: and arouter; wherein the system, upon receiving a transaction to be routed,notifies individual ones of the agent destinations, and the agentdestinations determine at the time of notification at least the agentactivity state and load state of each type of media queue served by theagent destination and return that information to the router, whichcombines the information utilized simultaneously at agent destinationsat a given period of time with agent skill information for each of themedia types, by an algorithm into an agent capacity set, and routes thetransaction to the agent exhibiting the most appropriate agent capacityset according to the algorithm.
 2. The transaction routing system ofclaim 1 wherein the destinations are agent-operated multimediaworkstations.
 3. The transaction routing system of claim 1 wherein thetransactions to be routed include telephone calls, e-mails, voice mails,file share requests, IP telephony calls, video conference calls, instantmessage sessions, and chat sessions.
 4. The application of claim 1wherein the load state also includes server loads related to multimediaservers, port loads related to agent-operated communication ports, lineloads related to network routing paths leading to agents, and systemloads relating to number of applications running and memory-use of thoseapplications on agent-operated systems.
 5. A method for routingmultimedia transactions in a communication center comprising steps of:(a) receiving an incoming transaction at a router, the transaction beingof a specific media type from a plurality of possible media types; (b)notifying individual ones of agent destinations, each operating morethan one type of a plurality of media types included in the multimediatransactions and providing a queue per agent destination for each of theseparate media types, (c) determining at the time of notification instep (b) at least the agent activity state, agent and the load state ofeach type of media queue served by the agent destination and return thatinformation to the router; (d) combining the information with agentskill information at the router by algorithm determining an agentcapacity set; and (e) routing the transaction to the agent exhibitingthe most appropriate agent capacity set according to the algorithm. 6.The method of claim 5 wherein the destinations are associated with apool of agents and the agents are assigned to and operate more than onetype of multimedia application for sewing incoming transactions.
 7. Themethod of claim 5 wherein the destinations are agent-operated multimediaworkstations.
 8. The method of claim 7 wherein the transactions to berouted include telephone calls, e-mails, voice mails, file sharerequests, IP telephony calls, video conference calls, instant messagesessions, and chat sessions.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein in step(d) the agent capacity set includes, system load values, and-agentskill-level values related to each individual media type.